NationStates Jolt Archive

The firehelper military, while large and advanced, lacked combat experience due to the few years that firehelper was out of isolation and participating in world events to some degree. By a decree of the emperor, a large scale military exercise was to be held. However, in order to be fully effective these exercises would have to be with another nation so as the Firehelper command would not fully expect that its enemy would do. To fill this role, a country named British Londinium came up and offered to spare some forces in a joint exercise. It would resemble a surprise amphibious invasion of Firehelper soil. To accommodate this a large tract of land was prepared at Firehelper's undeveloped offshore holdings.

===Firehelper claim, lost continent===
The specified plot of land was a large piece of territory Ideally suited to practices due to varying terrain. Naval forces could also engage in the waters outside of the territory. All the forces of Firehelper was positioned in a non threatening stance. All units were out in bases and camps surrounding the one simulated port city, 1 land city, and two villages.
There were 12 main camps and 25 smaller camps. The major camps were inland and the smaller camps were positioned along the shore. There were also five airbases, one was underground. The total land and air troops amounted to 350,000 infantry, 750 tanks, 2,000 IFVs and APCs, and 10,000 light transport and logistic vehicles. There were also 300 aircraft. There was also one fleet in the area. This consisted of 2 carriers, 1 battleship, 5 cruisers, 10 destroyers, 25 frigates, 40 corvettes and patrol craft, and 10 support ships. The firehelper forces were in a defcon 3 state.

map: http://i19.tinypic.com/4lr7us5.jpg

Military Exercise Arena
Lost Continent, Firehelper

"Let's show these people what our military is made of," muttered Joint Force Leader Aaij. Four hundred thousand men, fifteen task forces (each with one carrier, seven destroyers, five frigates, three submarines, and two minesweepers), one hundred bombers, and three hundred fighter aircraft had assembled in this arena to prove the military prowess of the People's Sovereign Republic - without the nasty connotations of "warmonger". JFL Aaij quickly signaled the Firehelpians, asking if they were ready to start the operation.

Firehelper Command Center, Command ship 20 km from wargame boundary
Admiral Lao looked out over the endless sea. The clouds were sparse today but still there. This would be the first major action, even if a wargame, that the nation of firehelper would undertake. The admirals and generals on the ship waited in anticipation as Lao, the overseer of all forces participating in the wargame, would give the reply.
"We are ready, you have the first move Brittish londinium." It was at this point that the numerous loitering UAVs and two satellites began transmitting visual reports of the battlefield.
The war game would start soon, and the needed experience for the forces of fire helper would soon be infused into the forces of fire helper with minimal injuries.

"The game's afoot," Aaij said. "Men, you know what to do!"

Missile frigates began sending swarms of sea-skimming Exocet guided missiles at the Firehelpian cruisers, whilst fifty helicopters attached to the navy pounded the carriers with HEAT missiles.

Radar Station A-2
Lieutenant Bai sat in a chair looking over a large black and green radar screen. The room he was in was several metres underground and was mostly dark save for the space lighting and radar screens. He didn't know weather he was excited, scared or both. "It's only a wargame" he told himself. However, that did nothing to ease his nervousness as he stared at the screen.
They say that the worst part of war is the waiting. Now that stage is over as numerous little dots inched closer and closer.
"Contacts, velocity indicates (virtual) missiles. We are under attack!!" he yelled into the radio. It would take three minutes at most to get any plane airbone, one and a hlaf for the better pilots. Until than the only defenses against the numerous fighters would be the coastal batteries and SAM sites and ground based CWIS.
[Firehelper Fleet]
The firehelper fleet, still moored at its berth, cut the cables holding it to shore rather than taking them off as is standard procedure. The crews all rushed to their positions. The carriers, with almost a dozen aircraft on each deck were a bid target for the missiles. These relatively light skinned ships were protected with multiple CWIS systems that began to fire. Their black rounds were launched against the simulated missiles knocking out many of them. However, about six got through and "impacted" on one of the carriers. This carrier was rendered inoperable and tis crew had to abandon ship as multiple simulated secondary explosions tore thought he decks. The other carrier emerged with one missile hitting a non vital area that was subsequently sealed off. Soon the able ships powered up their engines and moved out of port. The virtual anti-ship mines would activate as soon as they passed the line of them that stretched across the shore.
The sole battleship began firing blank rounds at the enemy fleet. This battleship had 22" guns and enough CWIS and armor to make most individual missile attacks ineffective. The battleship hammered away with its guns while launching its remote UAV net to scan the enemy feet. Its shells weighted almost 1.5 tons and could defeat most of the current soft skinned ships. However, a battleship could only fare so well when faced with this large fleet before it.
[Land]
Tanks and land forces began moving to preprepared positions where they would cover beaches, the tree line, airfields, camps, cities and other important locations. Soon the automated SAM sites were up and running and waited enemy missiles and aircraft to defeat.
Firehelper command ship
Now that the game has started the numerous generals and admirals stood in a large management room. The room was rectangular with nearly all wall surfaces covered in continuous wrap around LED screens. The only break in this was for the one bulkhead door. The generals all carried Tablet PCs to manage the data showed on the screens. This data came from numerous sources, such as satellites, UAVs observation posts, field commanders, and other battlefield sources. The officers conversed among themselves as to how to properly defend the territory and deployed forces accordingly. However one general turned to the Tigerlan Representative and said, "You have experience correct? Can you give us some comments concerning the strategy that we employ."